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Virtual reality enters the here and now

Imagine this. You’re sitting on the edge of Paul McCartney’s piano, looking across the shiny black top as he pounds out “Live and Let Die,” seemingly just for you.

But you’re not alone. Turn your head and there are 70,000 cheering fans, dancing along and cheering in San Francisco’s Candlestick Park, right at your feet. Onstage pyrotechnics launch with such ferocity you all but feel the flames. The music builds and the crowd around you roars.

In reality, it’s just you, sitting in a chair, wearing a brick-shaped black headset over your eyes and a pair of headphones.

Think this kind of experience is far in the future? As fledgling Toronto augmented reality company AWE says on its website: “Not tomorrow. Today.”

Jaunt VR, the California virtual reality cinematic software makers, broke new ground in late November with the McCartney video, giving viewers the best seat in the house with their prototype 360-degree, 16-lens camera. McCartney, known as one quick to embrace new technology, was so excited about the virtual reality company’s pitch, he invited a crew to film the better-than-front-row experience the following night.

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Nor is it pricey to get your head into VR. You can watch Jaunt’s McCartney video now with a free Google Play app and by investing less than $30 in DIY smartphone holder-headsets like Google Cardboard or DODOcase.

A participant at the Immersed trade show tries out some of Jaunt's technology. (Tara Walton / Toronto Star) | Order this photo

John Gaeta, creative director of new media and experiences for Lucasfilm, says virtually reality could allow moviegoers to “step inside” the worlds they see in films.
(Tara Walton / Toronto Star) | Order this photo

Naimul Khan of Toronto's AWE says people will be able to watch the Battle of York unfold at Fort York with the company's technology. (Tara Walton / Toronto Star) | Order this photo

Jaunt, AWE and two dozen other companies showed how immediate the virtual reality future is at a recent two-day Immersed conference in Toronto.

Organized by Neil Schneider, executive director of Toronto’s Immersive Technology Alliance, along with the Canada Media Fund and Ontario Centres of Excellence, Immersed gathered the latest innovations in virtual and augmented reality, along with gesture-based reality — a gamers’ favourite — where motions translate into onscreen movements.

Sitting on folding chairs with VR headsets covering their eyes, visitors at Immersed were able to step into games, take a stroll on the surface of Mars or, using software from Toronto company Polymath Labs, walk through a pre-construction condo suite in London, Ont., where the wall colours and cabinets could be changed on a whim.

These experiences and their creators are part of an industry that’s evolving at warp speed to bring 360-degree VR explorations directly to you, of everything from sporting events, to movies and theatre. Travel, education and health care all have a place in this world. Or perhaps a shared Star Trek-style holodeck experience enjoyed by a group, like a rain forest hike or rock concert.

The technology seems to evolve almost weekly. And while it has been more readily adopted by gamers and experimental producers, it appears poised to make the jump into the mainstream when the first headsets, including Samsung’s Gear VR and Facebook’s Oculus Rift, start coming to market in the next few months with consumer-friendly price points.

Canadian developers are already making an impact. Starting this spring, visitors to the Fort York National Historic Site will be handed either a tablet or headset to step into the 1800s with AWE’s Toronto History Quest app and its AR engine, the Time Tablet display.

“You can walk up to the Gardiner and (it) disappears and you see the lake,” explained Naimul Khan, AWE’s R&D manager.

People can watch the Battle of York unfold as well as “a lot of dramatic sequences” to help tell the story of Toronto’s history.

Part of the ease of exploring VR are the new ways companies are getting tools to people at reasonable prices.

Take the Bublcam, created by Toronto’s Bubl Technology. The 360-degree camera looks like an oversized baseball, weighs under 300 grams and holds a small SD card to record video.

When it starts shipping in spring 2015, it will cost $500 for the consumer version and $900 to $1,000 for pro.

New York Transit is already using a prototype for mapping and NASA is looking at it. Mount the camera on a stick and it can be lowered into a mine or some other area it might not be safe for people to explore. Or send it “anywhere you would send a drone with a camera,” says Joanna Taccone, Bubl’s marketing manager.

Inexpensive devices that turn smartphones into stereoscopic head-mounted viewers like the GO, by ImmersiON-VRelia, allow people to watch immersive films.

The company offers content, provided by NASA, such as a walk on the moon or Mars, or a visit to the Philae comet.

“It’s our goal to make virtual reality available so we’ve made a product that’s simple to use at an affordable price so everybody can get their hands on it,” said ImmersiON-VRelia co-founder Ethan D. Schur.

Those annoyed by people with faces constantly buried in smartphones may find the idea of eye-covering headsets and headphones even more isolating.

But John Gatea, who won an Oscar for The Matrix and is now helping bring the new Star Wars films to the screen as Lucasfilm’s creative director of new media and experiences, said that won’t always be the case.

“Most people think it’s going to have to shrink back to something organic and not inhuman,” he told the Star. “People do want the experience part.”

VR could be an adjunct to a movie, for instance. After watching, people could “step inside” the worlds they see in films, observing or even taking part in the story.

Gatea, who said he works exclusively “with the story group charged with developing all Star Wars story lines,” admitted VR “would be a natural” for the hugely popular space saga. But he wouldn’t comment when asked if studio Disney has development plans.

Across the conference floor, the Canadian Film Centre’s Media Lab was inviting people to get inside director David Cronenberg’s mind with an immersive version of its Body/Mind/Change alternate reality exhibit.

Ana Serrano, founder of the CFC Media Lab, said from AR to VR, this is a “billions of dollars industry.”

“I think the race has begun,” she said. “There are players leading the race, but it’s not clear if they will end up at the finish.”

Indeed, said Khan, of Toronto’s place at the VR table: “Talk to us in 10 years. We are going to replace Silicon Valley.”

This story has been edited from a previous version to say that Jaunt VR’s 360-degree camera has 16 lenses rather than 14.

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